Late Night Talk withAubrey Masango

There is little confidence among critics that National Assembly Parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete will go ahead with a secret ballot in a proposed motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma.

A unanimous judgment handed down by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in the Constitutional Court on Thursday affirmed Mbete's legal authority to decide on whether to hold a secret ballot or not.

While the opposition is leaning toward a secret vote to avoid intimidation, political analyst, Aubrey Matshiqi says, personally, he would like to know how parliamentarians vote, on the merit of transparency.

He says a secret ballot runs the risk of politicians being bought.

Neither a secret ballot or an open ballot is inherently rational or irrational. A secret ballot can shield parliamentarians who want to be dishonest where there is disjuncture between what they say publicly and how they vote privately.

— Aubrey Matshiqi, political analyst

A secret ballot can open us to the possibility of a distortion of policy and other outcomes simply because parliamentarians may be bought by powerful interest in society to vote in a particular way.

— Aubrey Matshiqi, political analyst

So the choice we have is a choice between these two necessary evils, and we must choose the lesser veil an din my view we must choose the lesser evil and that lesser veil must be about erring on the side of transparency.

— Aubrey Matshiqi, political analyst

Mathsiqi says Mbete must be careful about how she exercises her discretion and avoid being influenced by the interests of the African National Congress (ANC), as well as President Jacob Zuma.